Author: Karena

Woman shopping for clothes
2024, aquarius, astrology, lunation, moon, new moon, taurus, uranus

Feb 2024: Unexpected Surprises

Karena

There is a New Moon every month, and of course February is no exception. By itself, a New Moon is not a rare or exceptional event. However, our New Moon this month on February 9th is a little different.

The New Moon in Aquarius

First, it is a New Moon in Aquarius. Because of this, we have already been Aquarian energy emerging with Pluto newly in Aquarius. Some of the earthy feel of Pluto being in Capricorn for the past 18 years has been replaced by the airy energy of Pluto in Aquarius. So there is already the sense of being moving from solid Earth to slightly unmoored and adrift in Air. Pluto in Aquarius definitely doesn’t have its proverbial feet on the ground the way Pluto in Capricorn does!

The Uranus square

In addition to this New Moon piling on to the existing rise in Aquarius energy, this New Moon squares Uranus in Taurus within a degree. This means that both the Sun and Moon (which are conjoined during a New Moon) will be 90 degrees away from Uranus during this New Moon.

The square, or 90 degree angle, is an interesting one in astrology. It represents the friction between two different energies and the need to integrate them rather than embracing one and rejecting the other. During this New Moon, the Sun and Moon in Aquarius will be pushing us to develop new habits and relationships around our connection to society, technology, and community. With the Sun and Moon being the most personal “planets” in our charts, this will be a highly motivated drive from deep within our Souls. If you know what house this New Moon in Aquarius will fall in your birth chart, you will have a sense of where this energy may be manifesting for you in particular. How do we show up in a community and work toward whatever social justice we most believe in? How do we support our community? What authentic part of ourselves do we bring to group settings vs one-on-one interactions?

Balancing energies

As this New Moon in Aquarius causes us to examine the ways we show up in our communities, Uranus in Taurus squaring this energy brings a sense of rebellion in a material way. Maybe people expect us to show up in a particular way and embody a certain role. Maybe we are viewed as “the funny one”, “the helpful one”, or other archetypes that are starting to feel one-dimensional and like too-small clothes that no longer fit given the ways we have grown. Uranus will ask us to throw off the expectations of these communities that no longer resonate with us and go galloping off into the sunset unhindered.

As humans, we tend to gravitate toward extremes – in this case doubling down on one energy and ignoring the other energy. It would be easy for us to ignore the “too small clothes” feeling from Uranus in Taurus and just show up the way others (or even ourselves) expect us to show up. It might be equally easy to abandon particular communities entirely because they don’t feel like they “fit” us anymore.

But what does it look like if, instead of choosing one extreme or the other, we work to redefine the perception of ourselves in existing groups in a way that matches the authentic way we view ourselves? What if, rather than starting over in new groups and communities, we do the work of maintaining our existing relationships but working to redefine them? What does that look like?

A call to action

This is what the Aquarius New Moon squaring Uranus in Taurus asks us to do. Determine what is important to us societally and the way we want to show up. And then do the work to show up that way even if it’s different than the way we have shown up in the past. In a way, it really is about discarding clothes that no longer fit and replacing them with newer, better fitting clothes. There is work required to discover the new metaphorical clothing sizes that fit the new authentic you, but that work is part of your Soul growth and allows you to show up intentionally in your groups and communities and contribute in the way that best resonates with your Soul. If you have been feeling the itch of ill-fitting roles in society, this New Moon provides an immense opportunity to redefine the way you show up to the world.

Photo by Cam Morin on Unsplash

2024, astrology, capricorn, mars, mercury, retrograde

January 2024 – Undirected Speed

Karena

One of the things that is the most interesting to me about Mercury is its ephemeral (dare I say, “Mercurial”?) nature. It indicates matters related to travel, to messages, and to communication. Where people are concerned, it refers to a certain “magician” quality which makes someone a problem solver, a person who understands complex situations, and even a trickster (someone who understands a situation so deeply that they can prank it).

The core signification to me of Mercury is a sense of going from “here” to “there”. That could be physical (as with travel), it could be philosophical (in the way that communication helps us to arrive at different conclusions by gaining outside input), or it could be mental (in the way that messages notify us that something has occurred – like a bill being due!).

Mercury is the fastest planet in our solar system (we are not counting the Moon as a planet in this case, since it is a satellite of Earth rather than a planet fully in its own right). But Mercury zips around the Sun every 88 days. That is a lot faster than our Earth year of ~365 days!

The thing Mercury hates more than anything is standing still. Stagnation. Not moving from “here” to “there” and instead moving “nowhere”!

Mercury moves most slowly around the time of its retrograde motion (there is a good reason why, but that is a topic for a different blog post and is focused on astronomy, not astrology!). Because Mercury was recently retrograde in December and early January, it has been moving more slowly than usual. As a result, rather than catching up with Mars in Capricorn and quickly overtaking it, they have been moving together for the past week or so and will continue to move together for the following week until Mercury starts picking up speed. This means Mercury and Mars are spending more time close to each other than usual. Against the backdrop of Pluto moving from Capricorn to Aquarius (see last month’s blog post), what does this extended Mercury/Mars co-mingling of energy look like?

Mars wants to “go”! A great catch-phrase for Mars would be the Nike slogan “Just do it!” (Interestingly, Nike was founded as Blue Ribbon Sports when Mars was conjunct the Sun in early Aquarius, and Mars was again in early Aquarius, this time Trine the Sun, when its name changed to Nike. Clearly Nike’s history is very intertwined with Mars in Aquarius!)

Mercury and Mars both agree on their desire to move! However, the manner of the movement is very different. Mars says “GO, GO, GO!”. Mercury says “Create a plan, and then execute it!” It can be difficult for Mars to be patient while Mercury comes up with a plan, and likewise, it can be difficult for Mercury to come up with a plan while Mars is breathing down its proverbial neck.

This results in a kind of frenzied energy to move but a struggle to figure out which direction to move in. Without Mercury there, we would feel passionate about moving and not worry too much about which direction we were headed in. But Mercury will feel stressed if there is too much happening without a plan. The best travel, communication, and notifications typically happen when there is some form of planning in place. Most of us don’t quickly type gibberish into an email, click “Send”, and expect something good to happen.

This is the energy of January – feeling torn between a desire to move instantly, but at the same time wishing we had time to get a clear plan in place first! One thing worth calling out is that Mars is exalted in Capricorn, meaning that it does good work there. Earthy Capricorn inherently lends some structure and discipline to Mars’ rash energy. So it’s possible that Mercury and Capricorn will help slow Mars down until we have a solid plan in place. However, it seems more likely that we will have just enough of a heads up of oncoming craziness to brace ourselves for the impact, but not enough of a heads up to actually make a proactive plan. If you have thoughts on how this energy has been playing out in your life, please feel free to add a comment! It’s definitely a dynamic energy to start the year!

Photo by Oscar Sutton on Unsplash